The magazine made the announcement Monday.
"It's unbelievable. It was completely unexpected. It came out of the blue," Jeter told The Associated Press during a break in the photo shoot. "When I heard it, what can you say? It's one of the greatest honors you can achieve in sports."
The 35-year-old Jeter is the first Bronx Bomber to be tapped for the award that has been given out since 1954. Swimmer Michael Phelps was last year's recipient.
"That's even harder considering all the great Yankee players that have played for this organization," said Jeter, standing under the banners depicting Yankees greats that hang in the Great Hall of the new stadium. "So I hope I've done them proud."
Sports Illustrated Group editor Terry McDonell certainly thinks he has.
"This verifies my idea that he is on the level of Ruth and Gehrig," McDonell said. "He's the greatest shortstop in the history of the game."
All business between the lines, Jeter has become one of the untarnished ambassadors in the steroids era of baseball through steady play and quiet leadership on and off the field.
"He's so classy," McDonell said. "He brings a dignity and elegance to the game."
Jeter's 2009 season was remarkable. He batted .334 with 18 homers and 66 RBIs with 30 steals to help lead the Yankees to their first World Series title in nine years -- a frustrating drought for the player who won four championships in his first five seasons.
And as calls swelled for Jeter to switch positions after his contract expires in 2010, the 10-time All-Star went out and had one of his best defensive seasons: He made a career-low eight errors in winning his fourth Gold Glove.
He also passed Yankees icon Lou Gehrig's club record for hits, won the Hank Aaron Award as the AL's top hitter, and was given the Roberto Clemente Award for excellence on and off the field.
The World Series victory might have been Jeter's most cherished accomplishment this year, but what clinched the sportsman award for him was his philanthropic work. Jeter's Turn 2 Foundation has doled out over $10 million in grants since 1996 to organizations that help keep young people away from alcohol and drugs.
"It's about the manner of the striving and the quality of the effort, too," McDonell said. "Off the field he has grown so much as a member of the community."
For Jeter, who only looks as far ahead as the next game, he's nowhere near the end of an illustrious career that could culminate with 4,000 hits.
"I'll take it one hit at a time. That's a long way in the future," said Jeter, who has 2,747 hits. "I'm going to play as long as I'm having fun. Right now I'm having a blast." (story courtesy of the AP)
Another day, another award for Derek Jeter. World Series champion? Yeah, sure. Whatever. Gold Glove? Meh. Silver Slugger Award? Yawn. Hank Aaron Award, Roberto Clemente Award, and now Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year. Reading through that glorious description of Jeter's season made me both a little misty and little aroused at the same time. For Yankee fans, reading a list of Jeter's accomplishments is like romance novels for middle-aged women and this was no exception. Not bad for an overrated, washed up player whose best years are behind him.
To be honest, I'm not surprised Jeter won the award. As this season has shown, his accomplishments both on and off the field are more than enough to declare him worthy. What does surprise me is that it took this long for him to finally win, and that no Yankee has ever won this award in the 50+ years that SI has been in existence? Here I thought the media had only developed their intense negative bias towards the Yankees in the last 5 years or so, and now it's clear that SI has had it out for the Bombers since their inception.
You're telling me guys like Roger Maris, Thurman Munson, and Mariano Rivera were never worthy of Sportsman of the Year? Michael Fucking Phelps won it last year and all the dude did was win some swim meets, stutter and stammer through interviews with his horse mouth, and take a few bong rips at a frat party. If Sports Illustrated cared even a little bit about being fair and having this award mean something, they will go back and not only award Roger, Thurm, and The Sandman an award for one of their past seasons, but also award Jeter the award for 1998, 1999, and 2003.
Now of course the critics will be coming out of the woodwork today and for the rest of the week pointing out that Jeter's OBP was the lowest of the last 5 winners of the Sportsman of the Year. And you can pretty much take it to the bank that some stat geek at ESPN has created a formula proving that Jeter's VORSOY (Value Over Replacement Sportsman of the Year) is the 3rd-lowest out of all AL shortstops. But the bottom line is Jeter continues to be among the best at what he does on and off the field and there is still an overwhelming majority of his critics and peers who recognize just how special an athlete he is. That universal respect is something that can't be quantified and it's that respect that holds more value than any ridiculous stat created just for the purpose of trying to make Jeter look like less than he is.
So congratulations, Captain. It's been a long time coming and when you add everything up from this past season, there really isn't anybody more deserving.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment